Whether you are a big box retailer or selling niche items on Etsy, you can’t ignore the sales power of marketing on Pinterest – and it is about to change dramatically.

In the past, regardless of where you were selling your goods (i.e., Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest), your customers had to leave the social network, go to your site and complete the purchase.

Today, products and services can be purchased while staying on the social platform – ultimately, boosting conversion (fewer clicks away from the site and more impulse buys).

Staying on a social network site = More impulse buys

With social platforms jockeying for position within an industry that pulls in $263 Billion annually, according to the latest US government figures, we are witnessing a time of increasing experimentation.

The Future of Ecommerce is Marketing on Pinterest

Marketing on Pinterest With the “Buy It” Option

The case for investing in Pinterest for business purposes is well past the tipping point. Check out these Pinterest facts:

  • 70 million visitors are showing intent. Pins are one giant wish list!
  • Pinterest users follow an average of 9.3 retailers and spend over 90 minutes on the site every month.
  • Pinterest shoppers in the USA are also spending on average between $140-$180 per order, compared to the $60-$80 Facebook, and Twitter customers are spending.
  • Marketing on Pinterest is viral. Over 80% of content consists of repins.

(source: econsultancy)

This is where the game is changing:

Pinterest just made is super simple to buy anything within the social network.

To take advantage of this new feature, you have to join the Pinterest waitlist, or if you’re on a platform like Shopify, it is already built in.

The “Buy It” button will also be available on a version of Pinterest that runs on iPhones and iPads. According to Pinterest, more than 2 million products will be instantly buyable. (A future release date is in the works for desktop and Android users.)

But, Does ‘Buy it’ Generate Sales?

MarketingLand interviewed several small business merchants who have activated Buyable Pins — all via the integration with Shopify. Here is what they said:

  • Three months after launch, Pinterest and some retailers say about 90% of those using the e-commerce feature are new customers.
  • Eight weeks after activation of the feature, Heather Paul, co-owner of Spool No. 72 is seeing 30% of its Pinterest-generated sales coming from Buyable Pins. She confirmed that an overwhelming majority of those using Buyable Pins — 84 percent — are new customers to the company.
  • Daily Chic, another online apparel company is seeing about 30% growth from Buyable Pins and increasing the number of items people are buying
  • Madesmith, an online marketplace for handmade goods, is also pleased after seeing Buyable Pins account for 7.1% of the site’s total orders from July to September.

What Can You Do To Tap Into These Potential Customers?

Step 1. Create a library of “pinnable” images.

In a recent Bizrate Insights survey, 70% of consumers said they use Pinterest to “get inspiration on what to buy.”

To do: Create high-quality images that Pinterest users will love to share.

Tips: Pin descriptions under 200 characters are the most re-pinnable. Furthermore, according to Pinterest, informative Pins receive up to 30 percent more engagement than other Pins.

When marketing on Pinterest, make your pins more informative:

  • Add advice in the description
  • Include instructions or a how-to
  • Write detailed descriptions to give people a clear idea of what the Pin is about
  • Play around with using simple text on top of the image to quickly describe the Pin

Read more Pinterest for business tips.

Step 2. Schedule and share pins at the right time.

‘Pin It’ and they come.

According to Curalate.com, 85% of brand engagement happens outside of your brand’s Pinterest account. It’s important to share content on Pinterest at the right time to get the most repins.

According to new data from HubSpot (Janaury 2016), the best times to post on Pinterest are:

  • 2 AM – 4 AM and evening hours every day
  • 5 PM on Fridays
  • 8 PM – 11 PM on Saturdays

Automate as much as you can so you can spend more time running your business not sharing content. Sharing images to Pinterest is seamless with dlvr.it for Pinterest. All you need is an RSS feed and a little creativity.

Benefits:

  1. Cuts Pinterest Pinning time in half
  2. Instantly creates Pins in one click while browsing
  3. Can share immediately or schedule later
  4. Can share Pins across social media

Step 3. Experiment and measure.

Review your Pinterest and website analytics to reveal what is driving the most pins and ultimately sales. When you use dlvr.it for Pinterest, we can automatically append each Pin with a tracking code (i.e., Google Analytics UTM parameter).

To do: Identify your popular and high converting Pins and optimize for them.

  1. Headline
  2. Image
  3. Image quality
  4. Description

For more tips on optimizing Pins, read our ultimate guide to Pinterest marketing.

To do: Watch what pinners do with your content.

You can learn a lot by watching how pinners change your descriptor text.

  • How are users talking about your product?
  • Which keywords are they using?
  • How do those fit with your brand, product or content?

Ultimately, these insights help you make more informed decision when it comes to marketing on Pinterest and boosting engagement on your website. For instance, let’s say one of your products is frequently described using the term “gift”. Start using “gift” in your content and pin descriptions.

You can also use the keywords to optimize homepage headers, product descriptions, and product categories.

When your audience pins your images, they are telling you which of your products matter to them and which image they think best represents that product.

Some Final Thoughts

Pinterest is jockeying for the lead in social commerce. Use this time now to start testing and optimizing pins. Once you are approved for the ‘Buy it’ now feature on Pinterest, you will be in a position to strike gold.

Using one or all of the tactics above or our Pinterest marketing guide will help you scale great results from past successes, and help you score a similar positive return on investment in the future.

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What do you think? How have you capitalized the full potential of marketing on Pinterest?

Please share your thoughts with me in the comments.